This site has already received national and state attention and recognition for excellence from the Democratic Party communications leaders. David W. Shelton, who designed the site, wanted to make sure the community of Clarksville and its military uniqueness was showcased throughout the site so that Clarksville-area voters would feel more like a part of this campaign.

Each section of the website includes local-interest information and provides a master link to the Obama for America national website. Of special interest is a “Get the Facts” section to help clear up some of the smear emails, lies, and false reports about Senator Obama.

“This website is now the area’s leading information resource for Clarksville-related facts and tips for the Obama campaign,” Shelton said.

The site also features a promotional page that features common-sized banners for local voters to show their own support. It’s especially designed for members who have popular community website pages — a MySpace page, a blog, or a website of their own, they’ll be able to show their support as a “Clarksvillian for Obama” by inserting a banner with code that’s available on the site.

The site also allows visitors to sign up to receive email updates on local and national grass roots events, and encourages visitors to tell their friends about what Shelton says is “the new, premiere resource for Democrats in the Clarksville area.”

All words used Friday evening to describe the Clarksville Center Redevelopment Plan that deems 1800 parcels of lands and two square miles of the city as “blighted,” a move that would allow the city to take property designated as blighted and “redevelop” it to its maximum potential. Read “profit.”

Terry McMoore of the Urban Resource Center sponsored a community meeting at the HOPE Center on Legion Street to present a panel of speakers on this issue and to field questions from a worried public.

One phrase in the ordinance that concerned panelists and residents alike reads as follows:

“…the Plan for the project area will afford maximum opportunity consistent with the sound needs of the locality as a whole, for redevelopment of the area by private enterprise.” [Ordinance 73-2005-06, Section 7]

This meeting is one of a number of citizen- and community-sponsored events scheduled to address the concerns of proposed legislation that designated the entire downtown area — including the multi-million dollar courthouse, the new FM bank building, and businesses and homes in the district except property held by Austin Peay State University. The endorsement by the City Council followed a “revitalization” program in which citizens of the Red River and Brandon Hills area were invited to a series of planning sessions on the betterment of their community. Not long after the hype of “community betterment” project came the issuance of what Clarksville homeowners are calling “the blight deal.”

The panelists for this program, which aired to a full house of fifty people, included Nashville Atty. John Summers who currently chairs the Tennessee Historic Preservation Coalition, Dan Brown, Executive Director of the Tennessee Preservation Trust, Civil Rights activist and advocate Jimmie Garland Sr. (at left) who is currently serving as President of the Clarksville branch of the NAACP, and author and Human Relations Commissioner David Shelton. Ward 6 Councilor Marc Harris was scheduled to be on this panel but failed to appear.

“This is not just a development issue, this is a social justice issue,” Brown said, calling the plan, bold, audacious, over the top, the largest [redevelopment plan] of its kind in the nation.” The plan can be included on a top ten list of most endangering projects in the United States.

“There is no plan to it. It is ‘enabling’ legislation that allows developers to come into a community and take property.” Brown said the scope of the project is “unbelievable.”

John Summers (at right) displayed maps of Nashville Redevelopment projects, citing seven individualized development projects targeting specific issues in specific neighborhoods, each with it own issues and objectives, couched in long-range planning, unlike Clarksville’s move to blanket the entire center of the center under the collective label of “blight.”

“This kind of action is unprecedented; no other city in all of Tennessee — not Memphis, not Nashville, not Chattanooga or Jackson — has declared all of a downtown district as part of a single redevelopment. [Clarksville] declared 1800 parcels as blighted irregardless of their actual condition.” — John Summers

Summers and the panel agreed the only course of action to get this plan repealed, and said it would take a dedicated effort by residents to make that happen. He said the community must come together with a consensus. He said that while he hopes the plan will be repealed “because it is the right thing to do,” this precedent-setting legislation should be “fought on every level.” He has been in touch with a historic preservation legal trust fund. “This plan if allowed to manifest itself has national implications.”

Garland noted that a high percentage of residents in the area are middle and low income families, and many are people of color. Garland sees the plan as a way for the city to shift the balance of the community and move the poor out of the downtown corridor. Garland is taking a copy of the the ordinance (73-2005-06) to the state NAACP for review and discussion of potential action.

“If you trust your city council in this matter, go home and sleep well.” With those words came a rueful and wry laughter from the audience.

“This law will let developers build the convenience stores people say they need, and build the playgrounds, but there won’t be anyone living there to use them.” Not one presenter or member of the audience spoke in favor of this legislation, and many questioned the absence of any city officials.

Residents collectively voiced concern that the designation of blight will either diminish the value of their property and/or hinder their ability to sell property since anything in that area would be vulnerable to eminent domain takings for redevelopment.

It doesn’t matter if your property is not run down, if you live in a nice home…if you property is attached to a parcel that is needed to complete some other building package, it can and would be vulnerable to a taking. Summers said.

If Clarksville’s administrative and political leadership think the issue will die out, they need a reality check. The homeowners were not just worried, they were fighting mad. And they are organizing.

On Monday at 6 p.m. at the Train Station downtown, the Clarksville Property Rights Association will stage another meeting — complete with petitions — extending the face and the voice of the people affected by this designation.

These images reflect “the face of concern” at Friday’s meeting:

Editor’s Note: Author/Editor Christine Anne Piesyk facilitated the event at the request of the sponsor, the Urban Resource Center. Photos by Bill Larson

Shelton’s performance began with an introductory speech by Miss Amber Gaulden, vice-president of the GSA which started off the night’s pattern of somewhat offbeat humor with Miss Gaulden making slight jabs at the potential controversial nature. That was followed by Shelton doing a brief presentation on the upcoming Day of Silence to warm up the audience before beginning his presentation with an analysis of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, before then proceeding to read from his book.

Shelton’s presentation was both highly thought provoking and somewhat irreverent, with Shelton at one point joking, “If God doesn’t destroy Los Angeles, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” However, despite the worry of controversy none appeared during the presentation. Attendees were courteous, and polite, including during a somewhat tense question and answer period where attendees asked Shelton a variety of questions including several about his interpretation of certain verses from the biblical scripture.

When asked after the presentation, however, about his feelings over the appearance that some attendees deeply disagreed with him, Shelton stated, “There are plenty who read my articles who disagree with me on nearly everything. I’m okay with that. I contend one thing: the dialogue must continue.” It appears that Shelton certainly opened dialogue that night.